Oh No Not My Baby - Chart Versions

Chart Versions

The first released version of "Oh No Not My Baby" was by Maxine Brown, according to whom the song had first been recorded by her Scepter Records' roster-mates the Shirelles with the group's members alternating leads, an approach which had rendered the song unreleasable.

Brown says that Scepter exec Stan Greenberg gave her the song with the advisement that she had to "find the original melody" from the recording by the Shirelles: "they so far off by each taking their own lead, no one knew any more where the real melody stood."

Brown recalls sitting on the porch of her one level house in Queens listening to the Shirelles' track play on a boom box propped in a window. A group of children skipping rope on the sidewalk picked up the song's main hook before Brown herself; hearing the children singing "Oh no not my baby" as they skipped gave Brown the wherewithal to determine the song's melody. Brown recorded her vocal over the Shirelles' track with the group's vocals erased; Dee Dee Warwick provided the harmony vocal on the chorus.

Released in September 1964, Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" spent seven weeks in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1964 - January 1965 with a #24 peak. A concurrent UK release on Scepter's British licensee Pye Records was overlooked but the song was covered by Manfred Mann - whose version of the Shirelles' "Sha La La" had shared the U.S. Top 40 with Brown's "Oh No Not My Baby" - and that group's version of "Oh No Not My Baby", released 9 April 1965, reached #11 UK. Not released as a single in the U.S., Manfred Mann's "Oh No Not My Baby" failed to chart in a Canadian release and charted low in Australia at #67.

Merry Clayton recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" in a 1972 version which featured co-writer Carole King on piano; produced by Lou Adler, this single reached the Billboard Hot 100 at #72 (#61 on Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart) and the Billboard's Bestselling Soul Singles chart at #30. Despite its mild chart impact, Clayton's track earned a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the year 1972.

Also in 1973 Rod Stewart charted with "Oh No Not My Baby"; his self-produced version - a single with no parent album - reached #6 UK in September 1973 subsequently reaching #59 on both the U.S. and Canadian charts before the year's end.

De Blanc had a minor R&B hit (#70) with "Oh No Not My Baby" in 1976.

In December 1992 Cher released "Oh No Not My Baby" as the follow-up to her international hit "The Shoop Shoop Song" and likewise produced by Peter Asher; the track became a moderate international hit early in 1993.

Linda Ronstadt recorded "Oh No Not My Baby" for her 1993 Winter Light album; the track reached #35 on Billboard's radio airplay only Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks in 1994. She performed it live on the Late Show with David Letterman.